As
you will read below and in other places on this website, the
workforce at the Powder Plant was extremely diverse due to the
shortage of available workers. Mexicans played a
significant role in the building and running of the Powder
Plant. Their population, however, was severely affected by
an influenza outbreak. Several of those who died were
buried in mass graves on our site. You will not be
surprised to hear that there are many ghost stories associated
with the areas in which these graves are supposedly located.

Mexican
Village One of Local World War MemoriesOld Hickory News Ė
Fifteenth Anniversary 1939

The Mexican village, whose inhabitants played such
a part back in the powder plant days, was torn down just over ten years
ago, but even today you can hear vivid stories of this settlement from
persons who lived in Old Hickory at that time.

During the war the United States was forced to
call on foreign labor to some extent for construction work, and when the
Government started operations here, a good many of the darker skinned
people from further south trekked to Middle Tennessee to obtain
employment.

The Mexican village, where they settled, was
located far behind the present plants and today all traces of it have
vanished. Undoubtedly, there are people in Old Hickory today who do not
know of the existence of such a community. The Nashville Industrial
Corporation completed the salvage work on the little village about ten
or twelve years ago selling most of the weather-beaten lumber.

By then the inhabitants had departed for their
far-away homes or had gone on to other fields, for with the end of the
war came an end to any need for their work here.

A paper published during the war for the thousands
of people then living in Old Hickory ran the following article on the
Mexican village:

Mixed Population

The Mexican village is on of the interesting
places about Old Hickory. The village at this time has a population of
about fourteen hundred men, women and children.

This includes about fifty Indians. Six of these
Indians were accompanied to Old Hickory by their wives. They came here
from the Indian reservation at Navajo, new Mexico. Besides, there are a
few Porto(sic) Rico blacks and Porto Ricans. There is a difference
between the Porto Rico blacks and the so-called "regular
"Porto Rican".

Some Educated

These Mexicans have been employed mostly by the
Mason & Hanger Company, although quite a number of them are in the
employ of the du Pont Company. Among these Mexicans are some who are
well educated in Spanish, and they are ambitious to secure an English
education. It is possible that arrangements may be made for the
establishment of a night school for the benefit of these people, though
at this time nothing of this kind is being planned.

The Mexican has been a big help to the United
States Government in the great war. While thousands of Uncle Samís
boys have been forced to go to war many Mexicans have been available on
different construction jobs throughout the country, and a great deal of
work on the various ammunition plants and other war work over the United
States has been done by Mexicans.

Heretofore the Austrian and Greek has been
depended on to a great extent for all kinds of construction work in the
United States, but under existing circumstances the Austrian and Greek
have not been available for several years. The Mexican is about the only
foreign labor that this country has had to depend on while Uncle Samís
boys have been needed in the army and navy.

As a general thing, the Mexican, if he is properly
handled, develops into a good man, and he can be put to most any kind of
work. Numerous examples are to be found among the Old Hickory Mexicans
of their taking advantages of opportunities. Quite a number of these men
have worked themselves up from the common laborer to positions paying
sixty-five and seventy-five cents per hour.

White Chief Was Judge

Thomas L. Shortall, of Chicago, is the manager of
the Mexican village. Mr. Shortall has been engaged in construction work
for more than twenty years, much of the time being spent in the
Southwest, among the Mexicans. He understands their customs as well as
their language, and in addition to this he has the respect of all the
residents of the village, who do not hesitate to submit to him for
settlement all their troubles, arguments and disputes.

Such matters as shortages and other adjustments
are handled for them by Mr. Shortall, who sits as the arbiter in all
matters in which the Mexicans are interested. He has their complete
confidences in all of their affairs.

At the present time there are thirty-five
buildings in the Mexican village including the village club house.

Fun and Death

The club house is a place where residents of the
village are privileged to gather each evening where they can pass the
time socially. Their native games are indulged in and as long as those
attending the clubhouse are orderly they are permitted to visit the
clubhouse regularly.

The club house is also used for other public
gatherings and occasionally a dance, which is attended by the majority
of the residents of the village, is enjoyed. The music is furnished by
Mexicans and the dances are greatly enjoyed.

The Mexican village was hard hit by the
"flu" recently, and there were a large number of serious cases
among the residents. On this account, a Spanish priest, Rev. Leon
Monasterio of San Antonia, Texas, was sent for and he spent a month at
this place, administering both to the spiritual and physical welfare of
the afflicted people.

While the population of the village at this time
is estimated by Manager Shortall at fourteen hundred, it has been
gradually growing. New residents have been continually arriving while
there has been a large number of births in the village since its
establishment.

This is
a blueprint of Old Hickory that hangs in one of DuPont-Old Hickory's
conference rooms. All of the symbols on this map represent a
structure. click here for a closer look

SONS OF MARTHA
(Construction of the City of Old Hickory)By Dixon Merritt
Published by Mason & Hanger Company, Inc.
1928 New York City

This article is from a chapter in
a book published in 1928 by the Mason & Hanger Company. The book
describes the 100-year history of the company that built Old Hickory in
1918 in a period of eight months and a day. The company was the major
contractor selected by the U. S. Government to construct the world's
largest smokeless powder plant to support the Allies during World War
I. You can read the entire article at: http://www.dupontalumni.org/articles/article28.htm

Note: Thanks to
Wilson Stewart for making this article available online!

The Mexican Village

At that time there were living on the
reservation 1,400 Mexicans. Not all of them, however, were laborers.
Many were women and children, as a considerable portion of the Mexican
laborers brought their families with them.

The Mexican Village consisted of bunk
houses for both the bachelors and married men with their families, bath
houses, commissary. barber shop, club room. With the Mexicans were about
fifty Nacajo Indians and a number of Porto Ricans.

The Mexican Village was operated under
the supervision of the Mason & Hanger Company. Every effort was made
to take the best possible care of these people, far from their homes,
among surroundings utterly strange to them. There was appointed a
superintendent for the village--a man who had previously lived and
worked among Mexicans. A Mexican who spoke both Spanish and English was
detailed to assist him. A commissary was built and operated especially
for the Mexicans and the women of that nationality were encouraged to
conduct boarding tables where the Mexican laborers could enjoy cooking
of the kind which they knew and appreciated. Residents of the village
were encouraged to gather at the club house in the evenings for native
games, dancing and other social diversions.

During the epidemic of the Spanish
influenza the Mexicans were hard hit. The death rate undoubtedly would
have been very high but for the effective measures taken. A hospital was
set up in the village with an adequate number of doctors and nurses
constantly in attendance. Though many serious cases of influenza
developed, comparatively few deaths occurred. A Spanish Priest was
secured and for about a month during the period of sickness and fear of
the disease lived among the Mexicans and ministered to their needs.

Though there were among the Mexicans a few carpenters, plumbers,
electricians and the like, most of them served as laborers, the capacity
in which there was the greatest need. As a rule, they gave excellent
service. The help which Mexico thus gave to the United States in the
period of its critical need has perhaps never been generally recognized.
While American boys were forced to go overseas the places of many of
them in the necessary war work at home were taken by Mexicans. because
of this and the further fact that they were away from their native land
the Mexicans received more consideration than would have been their lot
under different circumstances.